Railway car truck bolster dampener



F. D. BARBER Nov. 5, 1968 RAILWAY CAR TRUCK BOLSTER DAMPENER Filed April 1, 1966 United States Patent Filed Apr. 1, 1966, Ser. No. 539,448 1 Claim. (Cl. 105-497) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Widely laterally extending stop surfaces on both sides of the wear plate on a truck frame and the wedge pocket on the bolster provide widely extended plane mating surfaces, the surface on the side frame being co-planar with the wear plate, the clearance between the stop surfaces being substantially less than the clearance between the lugs on the bolster on opposite sides of the frame and the bolster. This arrangement makes it impossible for the usual curved surface on the side frame to be worn away to the point where it no longer effectively resists rotation of the bolster.

This invention relates to improvements in stabilized railroad car trucks and has for one object to provide in combination with a side frame of a truck and a stabilized truck bolster, means for minimizing wear between the vertical guide faces of the side frame columns and the bolster extending between them.

Another object is to provide means for minimizing the tendency of the bolster under sudden shock conditions to rotate about the longitudinal horizontal axis of the bolster.

Another object is to minimize wear of the opposed bolster and side frame surfaces.

Other objects will appear from time to time throughout the specification and claim.

The invention is illustrated more or less diagrammatically in the accompanying drawings, wherein- FIGURE 1 is a side elevation in part section of a railroad car truck side frame with bolster in place;

FIGURE 2 is a section along the line 2-2 of FIG- URE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a section along the line 33 of FIG- URE 1;

FIGURE 4 is a section illustrating the prior art.

Like parts are indicated by like numerals throughout the specification and drawings.

Only that part necessary for the understanding of the invention of a railroad car truck side frame is illustrated.

The frame includes a longitudinal tension element 1 and compression element 2 spaced vertically from one another and connected by opposed vertical columns 3 to define a bolster window to receive a transverse bolster 4. There are side frames on both sides of the truck and the bolster terminates in box ends which penetrate and extend through the windows. Coil compression springs 5 rest on the tension member 1 and support the bolster 4.

On opposite sides of the bolster are wedge pockets 6 in opposition of the columns 3. The vertical faces of the columns 3 are recessed at 7 to receive vertical wear plates 8 adapted to be engaged by wedge blocks 9 forced yieldingly upward by the stabilizing springs 10 and wedged thereby between inclined wedge surfaces 11 in the pockets 6 and the wear plates 8 on the columns 3. The wedging action provides frictional resistance to damp out vertical movement of the bolster in the window as the load bearing springs expand and contract.

The frequency of the stabilizing springs is different from the frequency of the load carrying springs and thus as the bolster moves up and down in the window, the sta- 3,408,955 li'atented llov. 5, 1968 "ice bilizing springs bias the wedge blOCkS'intO we'ldgin'gpo sition between the vertical and the inclined surfaces.

Stop surfaces 1Q extend laterally from both sides of the recess 7 and extend downwardly from 'the top toward the bottom of the window terminating at a point above the tension member 'l'to substantially widen the lower half of the window as will hereinafter appear. Stop surfaces 13 on the opposite sides of the bolster are in opposition to the stop surfaces 12 and extend substantially the entire vertical height of the bolster. These stop surfaces are bounded along their outer edges by lugs 14 extending downwardly from the side walls of the bolster along the opposite sides of the columns. The clearance between the inner walls of these lugs and the columns is greater than the clearance between the stop surfaces 12, 13. The stop surfaces 12 are co-planar with the friction surface of the wear plates 8.

Pockets 15 in the stop surfaces 12 are spaced upwardly along both sides of the recess 7 and pockets 16 are disposed along the sides of the recess below the inner face of the wear plates so that weldment areas extending in these joined pockets throughout the entire height of the wear plates. These pockets 15 tend to equalize wear of the wear plates and the wedge blocks because of the varying effective width of contact surfaces in the wear plates over which the wedge blocks must travel.

The window is widened as above noted so that when the springs are removed, it becomes possible to drop the bolster down so that the flanges 14 may be drawn through the window to disassemble the bolster and truck frame but when in the working position the flanges positively prevent withdrawal of the bolster.

Assuming that the force of the stabilizing springs are as they should be equal on opposite sides of the window, the wedges will be biased upwardly and tend to center the bolster in the window without contact between the stop surfaces on opposed sides of bolster and window and the total clearance between bolster and window will be equally divided between the two sides of the bolster.

Under working conditions, however, as the train stops and starts and moves over a regular track, the bolster may be thrown to one side or the other of the window overcoming the biasing effect of the stabilizing wedges so that there will be direct contact between the bolster at one side of the window and in that case the wedge on the other side of the bolster will be pushed up further than normal. But as the car goes on, this situation will iron itself out and the springs will resume their normal position.

If the clearance between the bolster and the window is too great, the bolster may rotate about its horizontal axis assuming a tilted position the window and this tilted position, permitted by too great a clearance will cause the springs to pop out or cause wedging action which will interfere with stabilizing control.

It is to avoid any such situation as this that the particular arrangement of widely extended plane stop surfaces are substituted in this case for the usual type of unsatisfactory prior art arrangement as indicated in FIG- URE 4 where the only plane con-tact surfaces between the bolster and the window are part of the stabilizing system so that the clearance is not controlled positively as the rounded surfaces of bolster and window wear away, Such wearing away is inhibited by the contact of the plane wide stop surfaces.

I claim:

1. In combination, a windowed railroad car side frame, a bolster extending therethrough, lugs projecting from both sides of the bolster on both sides of the frame, the clearance between the lugs on each side of the bolster being substantially greater than the width of the frame, stabilizer pockets in the sides of the bolster between the lugs, wear plates on opposite sides of the window in opframe and bolster extending laterally from the pockets and from the wear plate, in opposition to each other, the stop surfaces in the window being co-planar with the face of each wear; plate, the. horizontal width of each stop surface on the side frame being such that with one of the lugsin contact with the side frame, the stop surface on the other side of the side frame remains in planar relation to the opposed, stop plate on the bolster.

UNITED STATES PATENTS 8/1939 Webb. 4/1964 Classen..

BELTRAN, Assistant Examiner.

References Cited, 7 

